This spring Dr Pepper is rolling out a test campaign for a new 10-calorie soda called Dr Pepper 10. Ladies, if you have a hankering for flavored sugar water that Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper simply can't satisfy, that's too bad; According to Dr Pepper 10's ad campaign it's "not for women."

Advertising Agereports that in addition to the masculine colors on the logo, the new campaign will include a "Man Cave" trailer that will visit Denver, Colorado Springs, Des moines, Kansas City, San Antonio, and Austin. The "Man Cave" will set up shop in "testosterone zones" like ball fields and car shows, and give guys a place to watch TV and play video games. Those few hours you're away from your TV every weekend can be pretty disorienting, so it'll be great for guys to have a place to escape from all that fresh air.

There's also a commercial which shows a commando running through the jungle during an action movie, then declaring women can, "keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks."Click to view

Advertisement

Compared to other products that aggressively appeal to male machismo (Axe body wash spring to mind), the commercial is fairly light on the woman-hating. Dave Fleming, director of marketing at Dr Pepper, says the company isn't looking to alienate woman. "Did we have a conversation about how far we wanted to go with this message? Absolutely," he said. "But we did the research, and it scored well with men and women."

So, why promote Dr Pepper Ten as a beverage for men only? Because the company hopes to succeed where Coke and Pepsi have failed. You may not have realized it, but Coke Zero and Pepsi Max are meant to appeal to dudes. That's why Coke Zero has a partnership with Nascar and Pepsi Max sponsors the NFL (though it's dropped the tag "diet cola for men").

Neither brand managed to monopolize the "diet cola for men who think diet cola is for girls" market, and Dr Pepper is hoping to succeed where they failed. Though, neither really "failed." Coke Zero consistently posts double-digit sales gains, and Pepsi Max became PepsiCo's 19th billion-dollar brand. So if "mid-calorie sodas" have proven popular with both men and women, why launch a new brand by telling half the potential customers that the product is not for them?